June 17, 2013

by James Glazebrook

Oh my days! This is the start of an epic week filled with dirty sonic noise here at überlin. We’re DJing at the WASTED RITA AFTER PARTY in Neukölln this Friday and seeing Queens Of The EFFIN’ Stone Age… IN A CASTLE!!?! But daddy always taught us to eat our mains before dessert so here’s some hate-pie from Finland, Rotten Sound.

Dead Remains. Corporate Fuck. Abusement Park. No it’s not a night out at Matrix, but just a selection of songs that Finnish grindcore godfathers Rotten Sound will be playing this Thursday at Magnet. They join fellow extreme pioneers Converge (who we barely survived last year at SO36), in support of their new EP, a five minute acoustic meditation on holistic living in a folk stylee…

YEAHSHIT!

(This stuff charts well in Finland…)

Now celebrating their twentieth year, Rotten Sound have released eight studio albums, seven EPs and guest-starred on three episodes of Two And A Half Men. Now only two of their original members remain, guitarist Mika Aalto and vocalist Mika Aalto Keijo Niinimaa or “Q” & “G” to their fans. Previous band members have included “K”, “J” and “H” which is surely only a couple of vowels short of an amazing high Scrabble score.

Rotten Sound and Converge are playing at Magnet this Donnerstag from 8pm (doors at 7pm). Tickets can be picked up at all the usual places. See you in “Das Pit”.

December 31, 2012

by James Glazebrook

What have Roxy Music, Depeche Mode and Thom Yorke all got in common? They’re all in our epic “Best of Berlin 2012″ playlist, a collection of (most of) the tracks I’ve posted on every Music Montag for a year. But what have they got to do with Berlin? Well, you’re going to have to read the original posts to find out, which you can get to via the epic list of tags at the bottom of this post.

Or you could just listen to the playlist, which features more obviously Berlin acts like Alec Empire, Bodi Bill, Pan-Pot and Modeselektor, plus local expat stars Emika, IAMX and Phia. You’ll notice that some of the more underground artists I covered haven’t yet made it to Spotify (sorry!), but otherwise this is a pretty well-rounded, surprisingly danceable mix, interrupted by the odd short, sharp metallic shock One for Silvester, maybe? Enjoy…

December 10, 2012

by Guest Blogger

Mike T West brings the pain.

The sound of Oranienstraße salivating is audible this week as legendary punk hotspot SO36 hosts the end times a little early with the one-two dragon-punch of post-screamo future heroes Touché Amoré and their hardcore über uncles, mothershitting Converge!

Los Angeles five-piece Touché Amoré are back in support of last year’s blistering and confessional second album, Parting the Sea Between Brightness and Me. Recorded live in a mere five days it’s as close as home listeners can get to witnessing the raw, tightening tension of their concerts.

Meanwhile Converge are simply one of the most engaging and remarkable heavy bands of our times. Blending possibly most, if not all, of the “cores” into a whirlwind of noise violence, these scene veterans invented metalcore a decade ago and dumped it in a ditch with a note saying, “please abuse repeatedly”. Theirs is a sonic attack that guarantees bloodshed.

So forget the upcoming yuletide apocalypse as Kreuzberg is already hosting the after-party! Expect high-kicks, two-steps and headbanging aplenty as two of Planet Earth’s most confrontational live acts tear December in half.

FYI the nationwide emergency number for the fire brigade and emergency medical services in Germany is 112.